The Day Centre

In 2015 I found out about a village about 1/2 hour drive from Oradea, that has desperately poor families and an adjoining community of even poorer Roma families. There are about 50 children in total, some of whom didn’t go to school because they had no shoes to wear.

A young couple who we know and who used to work in the orphanage where we took out our weekend children from, have left it and started an Association, to work with these children to help keep them in school. The education system in Romania is exaggerated and children from poor communities and especially Roma children often drop out before grade 8. School abandonment is a serious societal problem, 12 per cent of children drop out before grade 8. This couple, Oana and Marius, live in the village and see these impoverished and marginalized children as having value regardless of their unwashed state or their ethnicity. So they renovated an abandoned army stable, built 2 rooms and a hall around it and created a Day Centre in this village. The children go there after school, get a hot meal (often their one meal of the day), are taught and get help with their homework. We want to help the children stay in school and break the cycle of poverty from which they can’t escape.

The Centre opened in June 2017 and 30 children who were failing subjects and even their year, started going Saturdays then daily throughout the summer. They just loved the meal and learning was presented as something interesting and fun. By September, they had recovered their failed subjects and with support and encouragement they were prepared to start again at the village school. The autumn went very well. The children were happy to go to school with their homework done and the lessons learned. They were not ridiculed by the teachers and students anymore.

The school principal and teachers were very happy about the Day Centre and the immediate progress that the children began to make. They brought books and work sheets to the Centre and have been completely supportive. Backpacks and school supplies are donated to our children every year. They receive clothing and shoes from businesses and foundations. The children are always delighted with everything, especially because it helps them fit in with their classmates.

We have 2 teachers, 2 social workers who also teach, and a woman who cooks and cleans. This lady is from the village, illiterate, and could only previously work in the fields. Her joy at having a job is felt every day by everyone.

As well as give individual help with homework, the staff needs to actually teach the children, to explain at their understanding level what they don't understand without shaming them. They are accepted and listened to, they are understood, stimulated and encouraged. At school they had no confidence in themselves and couldn’t do the difficult homework, not being helped by their illiterate parents, but with the individual help given them at the Centre, the children started to develop this confidence to be able to work alone.

The children suffer from poverty related wounds and from marginalization so because of the deep trust and attachment they have with the staff, Oana and Marius counsel the children. They speak with the parents about problems at home, the children’s fears and behavioural issues which are seen as well at the Centre. A relationship of love and trust has developed between everyone at the Centre.